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Friday, October 28, 2011

Tony's Tattoos

So, I am grateful for each and any peaceful moments.

Joe had to spend a few days in the hospital. They are trying to get his medications right and resolve some other issues he is having. He was in good spirits when we arrived.
After a little while of visiting, he looked like he wanted to sleep. I told him it was okay, get some sleep.

I dug out my knitting, popped in my ear buds and sat in a chair at the foot of the bed. I watched as he started to doze off.
At the end of every row I would glance up and look at him. After about 10 rows I noticed his breathing was quiet and steady, that his mouth was slightly open, and there was no pain in his face. And we stayed like that, he and I, him peacefully asleep, me peacefully knitting.

Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that peaceful. The guy in the next bed had two visitors who were hard of hearing. So his T.V. was on, very loud, and the three of them were having a conversation, a very loud conversation. This obviously did not effect Joe's ability to zone out, he really was sound asleep. And I could still knit, but even cranking up the volume on the book I was listening to was not enough of a distraction. After all, their conversation was much more interesting than the book I was listening to. Yes that was meant to be sarcastic.

It went something like this:

Patient: " How did you come?"
Grandpa: "Wadda mean, how did I come? Tony, here picked me up."
Patient: "I know Tony picked you up, but how did you come?"
Tony: "We came the way we always come."
Grandpa: "Tony, how did you get to my house?"
Tony: "I went the way I always go. Down, Clark, when I get to the big gas station I make a right, then a left at the school."
Grandpa: "No, you don't make a right at the gas station, you make a left."
Tony: "Grandpa, you can't make a left there, you can only go right or straight."

This went on and on for what seemed like forever.

After they got that straightened out, the discussion turned to what happens when you get arrested. Apparently, and I did not know this, besides mug shots and finger printing the police also take pictures of any scars or tattoos that you have. Anyway that's what Tony's experience was.

By the end of the visit, they had covered a number of subjects ranging from the weather to whether or not Carmela was home making the gravy for tomorrow.

I was kinda disappointed when Grandpa got up and said to Tony, "You wanna go?" "We should go before the traffic starts getting heavy." "Tony, which way we gonna go?"
Of course Tony responded with, "The same way we always go."